A King and a Queen Lyrics
Your dress is dark red
And your opening eyes are bright green. Make a scene
But don't lie on the bed, laid out like you're dead
Because honey, you're murdering me
The hands come and they leave
Be hands holding a knife. Be a being on two feet
With his heart trembling
Butchering for a king he believes in though he's never seen
Crying for that handsome butcher's plight
(And, as some princess might
She still calls him a knight)
You're all that I need. Though I know that it never can be, I'd be pleased
To post your decrees, to fall at your knees
To name all your streets and to sit down and weep
When you're carried back through them and set down to sleep
And to lie by your side for sublime centuries
('Til we crumble to dust
When we're crushed by a single sunbeam)
He's telling her she can choose to be different things, behave in different ways for different reasons:
Be a sheep - though people will take what they can from you, then leave Be a butcher - and live entirely for someone who doesn't know you're alive Be a princess - loving someone for something they actually are not
"But the best thing for you would be queen, so be queen. You're all that I need." - just to be herself and he will worship her.
Will Sheff is the most eloquent man on earth. I LOVE this song.
butchering for a king he believes in though he’s never seen...
i love it. everybody butchers for a king they've never seen in some way, shape, or form. and i'm not implying anything in the way of religion... i was thinking more along the line of day to day actions. even at work... we choose to participate in a capitalistic society where most of us spill blood on our hands everyday (hypothetically of course) so those fine old chaps at the top can cruise around the world in their yachts. we'll never meet them and they'll never know our names but they should be fucking happy we bend over backwards for them everyday in the hopes of making an honest living.
I just listened to this for the first time yesterday, and I'm already convinced it's one of, if not the most beautiful song I've ever heard.
"butchering for a king he believes in though he’s never seen"
God?
Agreed that it's such a beautiful, powerful and yet soothing song. Throughout their album, they contain the theme of his unrequited love. The woman he loves still continues to love a man who has left her. He pours out his heart, telling her the lengths that he would go for her love. I don't quite understand that line "...butchering for a king he believes in though he's never seen.." Pretty sure he's speaking of the man she still loves though.
Anyway, one of the many excellent songs on an excellent album.
Actually, it just came to me. The butcher is himself. He is the butcher for the queen, and he is basically being a butcher for the king, who is the man she yearns for. He would prefer to be the king by her side though as we can see from his lines "I'd be pleased to post your decrees, to fall at your knees, to name all your streets..."
These lyrics are to me incredible.. i think they are underapreciated by most.
"Be the princess in that stone tower, crying for that handsome butcher’s plight (and, as some princess might, she still calls him a knight.)"
This is a great way to show that she sees something else in her "stone" than he believes is there..
This just such a purely enigmatic song. You have no idea how in love with it I am..
I think he sees himself as both the sheep and the butcher... bear with me.. hes the sheep, as he is still learning what is what 'who'll share and who'll feed' but he is also the butcher because he's killing for 'a king he believes in but has never seen' hes doing anything for her and a love he believes could exist, but he doesn't even know if she will care... but he wants her to love him and think of him as this great person a knight not just a common butcher like in love the person you love is always the best person you know and you can see them as so mch more than in reality they are. so yeah, an unrequited love. hope fullysome of that made sense to anyone other than me :) but to be honest i prefer to take it at face value as beautiful little story.
"Though I know that it never can be, I’d be pleased to post your decrees, to fall at your knees, to name all your streets and to sit down and weep when you’re carried back through them and set down to sleep, and to lie by your side for sublime centuries until we crumble to dust when we’re crushed by a single sunbeam"
it was everything I could ever ask for out of a single song.